Why would I buy a laptop when I can build a better one cheaper? The answer lies in building the laptop. Most gamers know that the better a laptop is in terms of performance the better it is when playing games. One can have gaming computer but the major challenge is that it is not portable. I would want something equally powerful and portable. Most of you knew about building a desktop computer and very few knew about building a laptop.
Some of you are probably asking, what is a gaming Laptop and how is it different from the normal laptops. As the name says, gaming laptop. It is a laptop specially designed for playing games. It has an additional gaming aspect of high end video card/s, Memory (Ram) and at times high end drives in form of (SSD). Such a laptop might have these specs:
CPU: Core i7-6820HK (2.7GHz Base)
GPU: GeForce GTX 980 8GB
RAM: 32GB DDR4-2133
Display: 17.3” IPS LCD with 75Hz refresh and G-Sync (1920×1080)
Storage: 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD
Optical Drive: Blu-ray BD-RE
Battery: 83Wh
Connectivity: mic in, headphone out, line in, line out, 6x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.1 Type C, 1x mini-DP, 1x HDMI, 1x RJ45, SD card
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Buying such a high end laptop proves to be very costly because of the additional gaming-oriented aspects. A standard gaming laptop is a core i7 3rd generation processor, 500 GB hard drive, 8GB RAM and a 1GB graphics card. A new laptop with these specifications ranges $500-$700 and a 2nd hand is around $300-$500 depending on the brand. Not all laptops with these specs can be gaming laptops, there are issues to do with heat and cooling the laptop, some laptops will over heat if you play a very demanding game. Click here to find our prices of the best gaming laptops, specs and prices, such names like Alienware, MSI and ASUS would pop up.
One of the biggest challenges of building a laptop is that most of the components are proprietary. Hence components have to be exactly for that laptop. So the 1st thing one has to consider is where I will find all the necessary proprietary components. The most important thing to choose is the case, screen, motherboard and processer. All these combined are what is called a barebones laptop. This is a laptop that has been stripped for other components like ram and hard drive or even processor and wireless adaptor. It is important to find a barebones with the specs you require. You would need to know the size of graphics card and the number of drives that can be installed. This can come with a power pack and battery, if not those thing have to be bought separately. The best graphics card brands are Nvidia and Radeon. Barebones can be found of zimclassified, eBay or Amazon.
After purchasing your barebones you should identify what that barebones has and doesn’t have. This process means you should know identify what is necessary of the components that are missing. Normally when you buy this barebones the seller tells you what the barebones has so that you budget on the components you would need. Drives and RAM are not proprietary so they can fit in any laptop and you can fit them last.
If the barebones doesn’t have a processor, it means you have to open it until you get to the slot where you fit the processor. You need the have knowledge on the type of processor required. Either AMD or inter. There are versions AMD processors and types of Intel core processors (i3, i5 and i7). You would need to know which generation processor is supported. Most of this information is given buy the seller of the barebones.
I would suggest at this time you should have an SSD (at least 128GB).SSD performs faster than a HDD. It achieved a maximum write speed of 654MB/s and maximum read speed of 712 MB/s as compared to a HDD. You need not worry much about type of HDD connection because lately all drive use SATA connections.
Another thing which should be ready is you Ram. Try to find ram that is at least 8 GB and 1600 frequency. Normally laptops have 2 slots for Ram which is DDR3. I’m saying at least because you can choose to install ram up to 32GB depending on the laptop. It’s easier to test with smaller amount of ram then you can upgrade once you are successful.
The remainder of the things are not as hard to installed but are also proprietary which are battery and rom. Install the rom/writer before closing the laptop then after you are done insert the battery.
After this what’s left is to test if you have installed the hardware components correctly. Switch on the laptop and go to you bios setting to check on the hardware components. This will show you what the laptop specs you have installed. If all is good you can go on to install your Operating system preferable any 64 bit OS. Install you applications and games then enjoy.
